God In Non Duality

[Spiritual Warfare]

What is the understanding of God in non-duality? Does God exist? Can anything be said about the nature of God?

For some, the idea of a creator God distinct from creation is untenable. For others, any outlook which denies that there is a supremely powerful Being which is the ultimate source of our existence and thus worthy of the highest reverence, is unsatisfactory. There are good grounds for both these views, so these are delicate questions.

In non-duality, ‘God’ is one of the names for ultimate reality, the highest truth. The Sanskrit word is Brahman, which is sometimes translated as God the Absolute.

The Existence of God in Non-duality

On the question of whether Brahman, the Absolute, exists, the answer from the non-dual perspective is that, strictly speaking, nothing but Brahman exists. God is ultimate reality. Anything seen as separate from God is incomplete and tentative.

When we think about these questions it is helpful to remember that the complications are caused by the limits of our minds. Our minds are finite instruments, so they cannot grasp God, the total reality. Our minds and senses can effectively investigate the world of nature, of which they are part. The knowledge gained through scientific investigation has transformed our understanding of the universe and the quality of our lives. But our minds cannot encompass the Totality; every scientific discovery also opens up new questions. Still, we can logically infer that quite apart from our knowledge, and our ignorance, there exists Absolute Reality.

The Creator God in Non-duality

Is ‘God’ or ‘Brahman’ to be thought of as the creator of the World? When we think of God the Absolute, Brahman, that evidently includes all. There is no time or space ‘outside’ Brahman, so within God there can be no creation, no coming into being of something that was not there before.

At the same time, the world revealed to our senses certainly does have its source and origin in Brahman.

Logic and reason lead to the conclusion that nothing ‘happens’ in Brahman; and that at the same time, nothing can exist or happen outside of Brahman. This does not mean that God is a logical contradiction, it simply means that the nature of God lies beyond the limits of our understanding. It is not surprising really, that ultimate Reality cannot be contained within our minds, which are details in reality.

So the non-dual view is that ultimately God, and God alone, exists Absolutely. That is the ultimate source and sustainer of all, and is thus worthy of the highest reverence and gratitude. At the same time, no image, no understanding that we can form in our minds, can be the whole truth, so wisdom begins with humility. This is a theme common to the deeper teachings of all the great wisdom traditions.

Can we turn to the God of Non-duality?

What can we do if we feel an impulse to turn to Truth, ultimate Reality, God the Absolute? This is where the non-dual teachings can most help us. They recognise these logical conclusions that Reality cannot be grasped by the mind, and at the same time, that Truth is the reality in us, the ground of our being, so to say. So we turn to truth not simply by more thinking, but most importantly by learning to still and purify our minds. It is in this stillness and purity that we discover more of the nature of our own being, which is not separate from the Being of all. This is the purpose of meditation and the related practices.

The non-dual teachings present another important insight, which is that God may be called Being Absolute and also Consciousness Absolute. This means that if we discover the true nature of our own consciousness, we discover Absolute consciousness, God, Brahman; not as an idea or object of experience, but as our Self. This is where divisions and not-knowing are dissolved in non-dual truth.

Such ideas can sound distant and abstract. But the teachings on reality and God in non-duality help us at every step. If we feel the need for a deeper communion, a sense of more complete wholeness and oneness with all, the teachings indicate the steps we can take to reduce the distractions and disturbances in our mind, and approach the reality that is ever the truth within us, ever free, fearless and fulfilled.

 

 

 

[Davino]

I enjoyed reading your perspective, though why you constricted your post to the view of non duality? You have good points that are calling for an opening and blooming beyond the limits of non duality.

14 hours ago, MarioGabrielJ said:

So the non-dual view is that ultimately God, and God alone, exists Absolutely.

This is True. God is Reality itself.

14 hours ago, MarioGabrielJ said:

The non-dual teachings present another important insight, which is that God may be called Being Absolute and also Consciousness Absolute. This means that if we discover the true nature of our own consciousness, we discover Absolute consciousness, God, Brahman; not as an idea or object of experience, but as our Self.

I am God is Truth. 

This one point keeps getting ever more profound, like swimming from the beach to an infinite ocean of Godliness to drown again and again into: I am God. God is me. I am Infinity.

 

I would also have loved to hear your inquiry into the nature of Infinity, which is central to the discussion of God, Reality and Self.

 

[Ishanga]

@MarioGabrielJ I prefer the use of the Term Brahman myself, God has to many implications associated with it for Use in a Spiritual Context I think, Brahman is better as it doesn't refer to a "Personified" God, it refers to as what You said above, Everything and Anything..

We can't understand Brahman, but we can Experience it. How does the Absolute or Brahman experience itself? I think it creates Us, so that a game of sorts begins, so that all sorts of Situations and Experience arises out of this Game.

The Game is Serious and Fun, Blissful and Suffering, and the coolest part of it all, Brahman gave Us Free Will, the Ability to be Conscious/Aware enough of Brahman (this does not mean Intellectual Understanding) that we can determine in each of our Individual Expression/Experience how to go thru this Game, is it a Blissful Game or Suffering Game, both have to exist, one cannot exist without the other, but we can choose!!

When we don't choose, then we live by accident and cannot really Experience Brahman totally, so that is why Bliss is a Great Foundational Context on the Spiritual Path, it allows us to be Free From Individuality and Karma in a way, it brings us beyond the inherent need to Survive and Live on that level of Living..

When You stop looking outside for Fulfilment, You stop Extracting from "Other", and You start Sharing, Giving much more, You want to Share this Bliss with everything around You, that is where Sat Chit Ananda comes into it, Reality/Brahman is Truth, Consciousness/Awareness, Bliss, these three words basically describe Reality and its all we need to know of it I think, any further inquiry will then get Us too Intellectually stimulated and we will Lose Awareness of it totally!

All of this is Experiential, without Experience then how is Brahman/God to know itself?

[OBEler]

5 minutes ago, Ishanga said:

@MarioGabrielJ I prefer the use of the Term Brahman myself, God has to many implications associated with it for Use in a Spiritual Context I think, Brahman is better as it doesn't refer to a "Personified" God, it refers to as what You said above, Everything and Anything..

We can't understand Brahman, but we can Experience it. How does the Absolute or Brahman experience itself? I think it creates Us, so that a game of sorts begins, so that all sorts of Situations and Experience arises out of this Game.

The Game is Serious and Fun, Blissful and Suffering, and the coolest part of it all, Brahman gave Us Free Will, the Ability to be Conscious/Aware enough of Brahman (this does not mean Intellectual Understanding) that we can determine in each of our Individual Expression/Experience how to go thru this Game, is it a Blissful Game or Suffering Game, both have to exist, one cannot exist without the other, but we can choose!!

When we don't choose, then we live by accident and cannot really Experience Brahman totally, so that is why Bliss is a Great Foundational Context on the Spiritual Path, it allows us to be Free From Individuality and Karma in a way, it brings us beyond the inherent need to Survive and Live on that level of Living..

When You stop looking outside for Fulfilment, You stop Extracting from "Other", and You start Sharing, Giving much more, You want to Share this Bliss with everything around You, that is where Sat Chit Ananda comes into it, Reality/Brahman is Truth, Consciousness/Awareness, Bliss, these three words basically describe Reality and its all we need to know of it I think, any further inquiry will then get Us too Intellectually stimulated and we will Lose Awareness of it totally!

All of this is Experiential, without Experience then how is Brahman/God to know itself?

What you need to know to understand consciousness is solipsism too. If you have time, you can answer on my help in the recent solipsism thread (it was hidden for whatever reason).

Edited July 21 by OBEler

[Spiritual Warfare]

5 hours ago, Davino said:

I would also have loved to hear your inquiry into the nature of Infinity, which is central to the discussion of God, Reality and Self.

 

The Meaning of Truth is Infinite

By saying that “the truth is infinite”, I don’t mean that there are infinite separate truths, each of which is just one truth. What I mean is that there are infinite truths that are mutually inseparable such that we cannot discount the presence of other things in knowing anything. This is a common theme in atomic physics where the problem is called entanglement. Its importance has been minimized by the false assumption that quantum physics might eventually reduce to classical physics, where we would be able to separate the entangled parts into individual parts. The ontological assumptions of separability are so deep in science that even when entanglement is seen, it is hoped that it will eventually disappear.

To think of an entangled reality, we have to visualize reality as a single body or an organism. In contrast, modern science visualizes reality as comprising many independent parts, which is called mechanism. We cannot know any part of the body without understanding the body as a whole. The grasp of the whole assists the grasp of the parts and vice versa. By “the truth is infinite” therefore I mean that each truth is infinite, rather than there are infinite truths. Everyone can accept that there are infinite truths. But reducing that infinity to individual things that are one truth each is the method of modern science. This method has deep roots in Christianity where all individuals are things-in-themselves. Each individual is then just one truth unrelated to the other individuals that are separate truths. The reductionism of modern science is also a Christian theme.

Thus we see a continuity from Greek antiquity to modern times in terms of fundamental principles of reductionism, individualism, and separationism. The superficial ideas have changed, but the deep underlying themes have remained unchanged. It is these themes that lead to incompleteness, because reality is entangled. Entanglement is not just an ontological claim, but an epistemological, and logical one too because it changes our idea of knowing (i.e., one thing cannot be known in isolation) and logic (three principles of Aristotelian logic don’t hold). If we persist on treating entanglement as merely an ontological problem, and try to grasp this ontology within the traditional Western epistemology and logic, then we get incompleteness in which either the unity or the diversity are unknowable.